Soccer is the world’s most popular sport and there are tens of thousands of soccer job opportunities in the U.S. Our soccer recruiting and consulting practice offers you extensive network within all elements of the U.S. soccer community – including Major League Soccer, USL, NASL, ASL, United Soccer Coaches, High School and Club.

Our soccer search and consulting practice is headed by Peter Arch, one of the sport’s most recognized leaders. Peter was part of the original British invasion of youth soccer in the U.S. during the 1980s. For nearly three decades, he has been actively involved in growing the sport in the U.S. and has helped create the largest youth soccer coaching company in North America.

In his role as a co-founder of Challenger Sports, Peter has recruited hundreds of soccer executives and Directors of Coaching, and over 10,000 coaches from Europe, North America, and South America.

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Whether you’re looking for a soccer coach, GM, facility operator or other soccer job,
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Understanding Soccer in the U.S

If you’re looking for a soccer job, it’s important to understand the “alphabet soup” of international, national, regional, professional, amateur and youth organizations within the sport.

Here’s a summary of how the sport of soccer is organized and the various acronyms that every potential candidate needs to know. And if you’re looking for a soccer job, send us your confidential resume.

The world of international soccer is governed at the highest level by The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). FIFA’s membership now comprises of 211 national associations. Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the soccer world is divided.

The United States belongs to FIFA’s regional confederation known commonly as CONCACAF – the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. It includes governance of international soccer involving in North America, which includes Central America, the Caribbean region, the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The United States Soccer Federation commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. With headquarters in Chicago, the FIFA member governs U.S. amateur and professional soccer, including the men’s, women’s, youth, beach soccer, futsal, and Paralympic national teams. U.S. Soccer sanctions referees and soccer tournaments for most soccer leagues in the United States.

The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America – NSCAA) is an organization of international soccer coaches founded in 1941. With more than 30,000 members, it is the largest soccer coaches’ organization in the world.

Men's Professional Leagues

Major League Soccer (MLS) is the highest-level men’s professional soccer league, sanctioned by US Soccer. There are currently 22 MLS teams – 19 in the U.S. and three in Canada. The league has stated that it will expand to 28 teams by 2020.

The MLS operates under a single-entity structure in which teams and player contracts are centrally owned by the league. Each team has an investor-operator that is also a shareholder in the league.

The NPSL is officially affiliated to the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) and qualifies for the U.S. Open Cup. The league is generally considered to be at the fourth tier of competition in the United States soccer pyramid, and roughly equal with the Premier Development League (PDL). There are currently 80 teams in the NASL.

The UWS has 21 teams in three conferences throughout the United States.

* Both the WPSL and UWS have professional and amateur teams. A soccer organization has to choose to be professional and amateur teams because of NCAA regulations that prohibit collegiate players to play on pro teams.

Youth Soccer

This is the largest youth affiliate member of U.S Soccer. U.S. Youth Soccer registers over 3 million boys and girls in 55 state youth soccer associations – one per state except for California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, which each have two state associations.

Collegiate Soccer

In the U.S., college soccer is not governed by FIFA/CONCACAF/U.S. SOCCER. Rather it is regulated by one of the sports regulatory body for major universities – the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).